Design of a dual-band, switched-beam dipole array

Switched-beam arrays (SBAs) are considered as an attractive alternative to fully adaptive arrays, mostly due to easy installation and inexpensive maintenance. In this paper, a new technique is proposed in order to design dual-band switched-beam dipole arrays. The scope of the proposed technique is to design arrays with balanced radiation characteristics at both frequency bands. This is accomplished by joint optimization of the array´s architectural characteristics (topology, elements length and radius) and excitation coefficients, for operation at both frequency bands, while properly exploiting mutual coupling among array elements. Numerical results are presented in the case of a uniform, circular, eight- element dipole array, operating at 2.4 GHz and 3.5 GHz, and excellent agreement to design considerations is demonstrated. Furthermore, a technique for the design of an appropriate dual-band dipole is presented.